


Halting Steps

by arysthaeniru



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: F/M, High School, a little older than canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-29
Updated: 2015-03-29
Packaged: 2018-03-20 04:28:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3636735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arysthaeniru/pseuds/arysthaeniru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sakuno is surprised when Ryoma arrives on her doorstep requesting for a game of tennis. Her? Why would he want to play her? Sure, she's come third place in Kanto's girls tennis competitions, but that hardly compares to Japan's Number 1 Player...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Halting Steps

**Author's Note:**

> I just love Sakuno and Ryoma's relationship, love being involved or not. You can take the story as you will.

The oven timer beeped in the fifteen minute warning and Ryuuzaki Sakuno hummed along with the music on the radio. It was some inane pop song that Tomo-chan really liked, and usually it wasn’t the sort of thing that Sakuno really liked to listen to, but she was too engrossed on what she was doing to switch the channel. It was a lazy saturday morning, with the bright sun trickling through the hazy sheen of clouds, and Sakuno was feeling very good.

As she started running the large pan underneath the tap, the doorbell rung. Sakuno frowned; who could that be? Her grandmother was out at some teacher’s event involving maths and Tomo-chan was too busy babysitting to come over. And her father’s flight home had been slated to arrive at 7pm that night. Sakuno didn’t really have many other people who would ring the doorbell, unless it was some sort of salesman.

With a slightly trepidous face, Sakuno opened the door a little, sticking her head out, ready to politely decline the salesman, in a speech that she and her grandmother had prepared one day, after she’d burst out crying upon a salesman refusing to let her say no. But luckily for Sakuno’s heart, the person at the door was not a salesman and was instead Ryoma-kun, with a tennis bag slung over his shoulder.

"Ryoma-kun?" she asked, as her eyes darted over the smaller details of him, like the fact that his hands were clenched, his knee was jiggling as if he was in a hurry and that his hat was lower over his eyes than ever.

"You free for a tennis game, Ryuzaki?" he asked. Sakuno felt a little floored: exactly why was he asking _her_ for a match? Sure, she’d come third in her division, but she wasn’t up to the level of the number one tennis player in Japan, after all. Still, she nodded, wordlessly.

"Yes, I can…but umm, can you wait about twenty minutes? The anpan needs to finish cooking." she said, with an apologetic look. Ryoma-kun looked a little floored by the idea that she might be busy and Sakuno opened the door a little more, almost tripping over her legs to make room. "I mean, you can come in and wait for it, if that’s alright?"

Ryoma-kun nodded and followed her in, looking a little awkward. She smiled, a little nervously and led him into her rather large kitchen, gesturing to her table. He took a seat, looking a little confused as Sakuno hovered a little, uncertainly. Ryoma-kun was here. In her kitchen. Wanting to play tennis with her, while also looking like a jittery kitten. This was beyond strange. “Would you like something to drink, Ryoma-kun?” she asked, as she walked over to her fridge, trying to stick to the good host script.

He shook his head, and made vague excuses, his knee bouncing up and down from where it stuck out from underneath the neat, cherry-patterned tablecloth. Feeling a little unconvinced, Sakuno nevertheless returned to the sink and started scrubbing at the pots and pans a little viciously. After a couple of minutes in abject silence, except for the warbling radio playing ARASHI, Sakuno couldn’t take it anymore and leaned over to turn it off. It made the silence seem more deafening, but less frozen, in any case. It seemed to jolt Ryoma-kun out of a small reverie, making his eyes a little less clouded, as he looked up.

"Nice apron." he commented dryly and Sakuno glanced down at the pink, frilly thing that she’d bought for herself a couple of years back. She coloured, feeling a little embarrassed. _She’d_ liked it.

"Hello Kitty’s a good rolemodel." she said, as she turned away, back towards the sink, her words a little more abashed and she couldn’t bring herself to respond any further as she scrubbed at the pan with a firm vigour. After an awkward beat, Ryoma spoke up again.

"What are you cooking?" he ventured and Sakuno turned around again, as she stacked some dishes on the rack.

"Anpan. It’s my father’s favourite food, and since he’s coming home tonight, I thought I’d make some for him. If you like, I can give you some?" she asked. He shook his head, his fingers coming up to the table, drumming lightly on the plastic surface.

"Business trip?" he asked, politely, though it was clear that he wasn’t actually interested.

"Tournament, actually." she said, with a small smile, as the timer went off and she rushed over to the oven to turn off the beeping. "The Asias just finished."

His eyes sharpened and she smiled a little, with pride, as she opened the oven door, leaned away from the initial heat and pulled out the tray with her bright pink oven gloves, sliding the tray out onto her cooling rack. “He plays professional badminton.” she explained, with a little chagrin. “World number five. Ryuzaki Rei?”

"But you don’t play badminton?" he asked, as she turned off the oven and turned on the ventilation fan over the anpan bread. It sounded rather incredulous to him and Sakuno almost laughed. Still, the question was asked in earnest.

"No. I didn’t really enjoy it. And my father didn’t really care whether I played it or not." she said, as she unwound her apron and draped over the pin on the wall. The oven gloves were tucked away and she wetted a spare towel to wipe down the counters. "I spent more time watching grandma’s tennis teams. So I guess I preferred tennis to badminton." It helped that her grandma had been actively paying attention to her despite tennis and trying to explain tennis to her, while badminton had only served to take her father away from her. But she didn’t say that to Ryoma-kun.

"You’re lucky. To have known that you didn’t like it." he said, finally, a peculiar tone to his voice, and Sakuno shrugged.

"In some ways, we all are lucky." she said. Some people in the tennis club would have done anything for Ryoma-kun’s talent and effortless grace. "I’ll go grab my stuff."

She quickly darted up the stairs, to reach for her racquets, which always ready to go, thanks to the girl’s tennis team’s tendencies to have practise, even on days when they technically weren’t supposed to be out. She quickly slipped on a nice polo shirt, grabbed a headband to keep her fringe out of her eyes, and then darted back down the stairs again. Ryoma-kun was now leaning against the wall next to the front door, tossing a tennis ball up and down, in wait.

Sakuno quickly popped into the kitchen, turned off the ventilator, before grabbing her keys and walking out with Ryoma-kun. “…why did you want to play with me, anyway?” she asked, once they’d crossed the street and were making their way to the tennis courts.

"…the others were busy with something." he said, looking a little annoyed. "And you play mada mada tennis, but better than the idiots at the street courts." he said, and that was almost a compliment from someone like Ryoma-kun. Sakuno smiled to herself, with quiet pride, and turned around to say something, but paused at the sight of his tormented face.

The words died in her mouth and Sakuno just frowned at him, with a concerned visage. She didn’t say anything as they drew closer to the courts, and took one of the empty courts at the end, away from the large viewing area where the doubles challenges happened. The moment that Ryoma-kun served, Sakuno knew that it wasn’t going to be a good match.

It was an angry ball, and even if it wasn’t aimed towards her, Sakuno flinched momentarily before running after it. The action slowed her down and she missed it, her eyes tracking the ball in disappointment as it clattered against the metal fence and rolled down across the dusty court. Ryoma-kun scowled from his position and aimed again. This time, it was closer to her feet and Sakuno squeaked, before pulling a face at him.

"Ryoma-kun, if you wanted target practise, you could have picked a scarecrow." she said, with an unhappy frown. "Are you going to play tennis or chuck balls at me?" she asked.

He frowned, but his serves became a little more docile. She was able to get at least one point from him in that game, and as they switched courts, Sakuno’s face twisted in worry, as she shot one of her faster balls down the centre line. The return ball was aimed towards her head and Sakuno instantly pulled the racquet up to protect her face, as she stepped back and fell back onto her butt. The ball bounced off the racquet and collided against the net, but the impact of hitting the floor sent the breath out of her. She stayed where she was for a couple of moments, just breathing and feeling the sting of the court against her thighs and the fear still rushing through her veins.

Ryoma-kun looked a little concerned, but didn’t move. “Aren’t you coming, Ryuuzaki?” he asked and that was enough for Sakuno. She stood up, her lips pressed tightly together and firmly walked away from the court, grabbing her stuff as she went. She wasn’t quite sure where she was going but she wasn’t going to just stand there while she was being pummeled at by tennis balls. She wasn’t Ryoma-kun; even if that happened to her in an official match, she wouldn’t stand and take it. She was more sensible than tennis-obsessed boys.

As she walked away from the court, her shoulders slumped and her eyes shut. Stupid. It had been obvious that Ryoma-kun hadn’t been feeling good. She should have stopped him back at her house. fed him anpan and talked to him. Instead, she’d just walked out here like an idiot, too blinded by surpuise that Ryoma-kun had wanted to play her. Stupid, like a love-struck girl who was delighted that her crush was paying her attention, instead of like a friend.

As she headed towards the vending machine for a drink to make her less disappointed and angry, a thought came to her. Ryoma-kun had only wanted target practise, right? Why else would he ask her? She knew for a fact that Kikumaru-senpai was free today, since he’d been complaining about Oishi-senpai bailing him for fish. He’d wanted target practise. “Stupid, stupid stupid.” muttered Sakuno, as she hit her head against the glass of the vending machine.

"Are you done?’ asked Ryoma’s bored voice behind her, and Sakuno’s shoulders drew up rapidly. She turned around, with a miserable look and stepped away from the machine, as Ryoma-kun entered some money into the vending machine, unable to really look at anything but her feet. She didn’t know whether she was angry or ashamed or sad. All she knew was that she wanted to go home, finish her cooking and wait for her father.

She jolted upwards as a cold drink was pressed to the back of her neck, by Ryoma-kun, who didn’t say anything as Sakuno picked up the extra can. He stalked away quickly after that. She didn’t really want to follow him, but she did it anyway, trailing behind him. His steps were shakier than usual, his feet sort of skewed and Sakuno detected the slight tremour in them and darted forward just as he was about to trip over.

The two unopened cans rolled away from them as Sakuno darted towards him, and they both landed in a small pile on the concrete. Not her best idea. Ryoma-kun’s skin was very pale from up close and sort of clammy. Sakuno extracted herself from Ryoma-kun’s limbs with difficulty and placed the back of her hand to his forehead. No fever… “Did you eat, Ryoma-kun?’ asked Sakuno, with a concerned glance at his skin.

He looked away from her gaze. “…no.” he said, and Sakuno exhaled, heavily, an unhappy frown on her face, but didn’t say anything.

"What’s wrong anyway, Ryoma-kun?" asked Sakuno, as they stared at each other, with confused looks on each other’s faces.

"Nothing." Ryoma-kun said, instantly, as he pushed her off him, with a little bit of force. Sakuno pinwheeled backwards again as he dusted himself off and straightened.

"…sorry." he said, to Sakuno, finally, tugging at the edge of his cap, before he turned away and started to hurriedly walk away. Sakuno stared at his retreating back for a moment, like an idiot. Had he just apologized to her? Ryoma-kun, who didn’t seem to know any manners at all? Regathering her senses, quickly, she grabbed the two cans which had rolled over to the gutter, before jogging after him.

"Ryoma-kun! Ryoma-kun!" she called, as she chased after him. As she caught up with his stride, which had only marginally slowed, she panted, faintly, and handed him the can of Ponta. He accepted the can with a little confusion, as they both cracked the cans open in unison, and took a sip. Sakuno let the silence extend between them comfortably, as she walked through the park with him, until they were far away from the tennis courts. "You want to go to the fair? They have those dart throwing games there, I remember you said that you like those." asked Sakuno, curiously.

Ryoma turned to her and she shook her hands, frantically, as in panic. “Ano, that’s only if you want to. I sort of wanted to win a plushie or something myself, but you don’t have to come with me…” She knew from previous outings with Ryoma-kun, the fastest way to make him agree to do something, was to suggest it boldly, before pretending to retreat into her shyness.

"Alright." he said, as he took another deep sip of Ponta, and Sakuno smiled into the rim of the can, momentarily.

They walked the rest of the way to the amusement park in silence, only stopping briefly to adjust their shoelaces. Sakuno was used to silence with Ryoma, and she rather thought that he didn’t want it broken, so she just hummed under her breath and looked around her, to the sunny, summer morning and the various people walking around.

Finally, after paying their tickets at the gate, they walked into the amusement park. Sakuno spotted a stall instantly, with a large, green alien plushie that Tomo-chan would like. Without thinking, she pulled him over. “Ano,” she said, to the shopkeeper who suddenly looked so much taller than her, “Could…we…play…”

"Of course." said the scary man, with quite a jovial voice and Sakuno felt herself exhale slightly. "100 yen for three turns with the darts."

Sakuno tossed him the coin, quickly before concentrating carefully on the targets at the back. Her first throw fell hilariously short. The second throw only managed to graze the top of the target, but the third managed to hit dead centre…and bounced straight off. Sakuno gaped in dismay, and exhaled sadly, as she pulled away from the stall. Shame. She needed to work on her strength.

But Ryoma-kun frowned and tugged at her sleeve. He quickly rummaged through his pockets, and chucked a 100yen coin at the man. The man looked a little confused as instead of just picking up one dart, Ryoma-kun picked up all three. With a slight furrow in his eyebrows, Ryoma-kun aimed with a large whip in his arm. All three darts hit dead centre with a very large sound, but still managed to bounce off. Sakuno gaped. Ryoma-kun was one of the strongest people she knew which meant…

"Rigging your stall isn’t very nice!" Sakuno said, hotly, before cringing slightly at the man’s glare upon her statement.

"It’s the only way to make a living with you headband-wearing delinquents who can aim like nobody’s business." he muttered, underneath his breath, looking quite uncharitable. But at Ryoma-kun’s cold glare, he relented a little. "Go on then, get a prize."

Sakuno gave Ryoma-kun a slightly triumphant smile as she reached up on the top of her toes to get the green alien plushie, before waving at the stall owner cheerfully and skipping away. “Thank you, Ryoma-kun.” she said, with a warm smile. “Tomo-chan loves these sorts of things.”

"That demented plushie? Really? I would have thought you would have gone for the Hello Kitty, your _rolemodel_.” said Ryoma-kun, a dry smirk to his lips and Sakuno laughed, with a little embarrassment.

"Mou, Ryoma-kun." she complained. "It’s not for me, it’s for Tomo-chan."

"Sure, sure." he said, breezily and Sakuno glared at him, petulantly. His face was looking even paler and her lips pressed together tightly at the sight. She’s almost forgotten. Food.

"Oh look, Ryoma-kun, a soba cart!" she said, pointing towards the cart, a little louder than she usually was. "It’s so hot today, let’s go and get some, ne?"

He gave her a nonplussed look, and Sakuno figured that her acting was unconvincing, but luckily, her stomach saved her and gurgled a little, bemoaning the lack of food since her morning breakfast. She flushed a little, but pattered over to the cart anyway, ordering two soba bowls for them both, and bringing it over to the table that Ryoma had sulkily staked out.

"Here you go." Sakuno said, placing the bowl down in front of him, tucking the two chopstick packets into her elbow. They slipped a little, and Ryoma-kun caught them, brushing against the inner skin of her elbow as he saved their chopsticks from being soaked in sauce.

"So clumsy." he said, as he took a seat, ignoring the red flush that touched Sakuno’s face as she took her seat, and kicked her tennis bag underneath her chair. Honestly, sometimes Sakuno wondered whether he really was that blind to her constant state of ‘flustered’ around him, or if he was just being kind and ignoring it.

"Well, I wouldn’t have been, if you’d helped me at the stall, Ryoma-kun." she said, fighting her embarrassment, as she ripped open the packet and split her chopsticks down the middle. "Itedakimasu."

Ryoma-kun echoed her sentiments, with a light, mocking smirk as he took a large slurp of noodles. Regardless, she couldn’t help but feel a bit happy that he was back to acting a little more normally. No more jittering. Sakuno smiled to herself a little, as he practically inhaled the bowl of food, despite having looked unwilling to eat before. Boys. She took a little more of her time in finishing her dish, and he just leant back in his chair, tilting his cap over his eyes, lazily.

"Ryoma-kun?" she asked, as she was nearing the end of her bowl. He tilted his cap up briefly, his eyes focused on her quizzically, and she stifled a little annoyance at how he managed to effortlessly look cool. "Did….did your dad say something? Or your mum?" she asked, hesitantly. "You were really down this morning…"

"It’s nothing." Ryoma-kun said, instantly, as he tilted his cap back over his eyes. Sakuno’s mouth pulled down.

"It obviously wasn’t, since you decided to start playing like Akutsu-san and Kirihara-san without provocation." she muttered, looking away, as she placed her chopsticks neatly against the top of her bowl, so she could fully stare at Ryoma-kun. "It must have been something big, since you didn’t eat this morning, Ryoma-kun." With an appetite like his, it meant a lot, too. 

She was greeted with stony silence and she silently heaved a sigh. A different method, then. She wasn’t giving up. Even if it seemed like he’d come to her wanting target practise, he _had_ come to her when he was troubled, and she was determined to try and help him out a little. “I’m your friend, Ryoma-kun, right? You can tell me what’s troubling you.” she said, quietly.

There was more silence, which extended for a lengthy span of time, with only the sound of the other couples and kids traversing the parks, filling the gap between them. Sakuno sighed, after a couple of minutes, and picked up her chopsticks again, to finish off the remnants of her bowl .

"Mom wants to go back to America." he said, quietly, as Sakuno placed the chopsticks back down again, and settled into a better listening position. "She’s having a hard time here, and she loves me and Dad, but she was born in America, and she misses the lifestyle there. But Dad definitely wants to stay here so I can keep going with tennis. Because I’m doing better here."

Sakuno felt her face fall. “Uh…” she breathed out, in surprise. Well, she hadn’t been expecting that. Ryoma-kun tilted his head back and Sakuno looked down at her hands, which were faintly trembling from surprise. She didn’t want Ryoma-kun to leave, and she doubted that the rest of Seigaku wanted that either, but… that wasn’t what was important here, was it? “What do you want to do, Ryoma-kun?” she asked, swallowing heavily.

Ryoma-kun’s chair legs hit the floor suddenly, with a large thump forwards, as if he was about to get up and bolt. He gave her a startled look and Sakuno couldn’t help but feel that she’d screwed up what she’d wanted to say. She stood up quickly, before he could, and grabbed their bowls to return to the stand. “Let’s go to the Spinner! Katsuo-kun was saying that it was fun.” she said, as she beckoned him towards the actual rides.

The look was more confused now, and that was a better feeling than seeing Ryoma-kun look so lost. “Come with me, please?” she asked, clasping her arms in front of her skort. “I don’t like going on rollercoasters without other people…” Well, that was sort of true, because it was quite boring to travel on a rollercoaster without someone, but adding a slightly trembling voice and pretending that she was scared, was the best way to make Ryoma-kun follow her, even if it was tetchily.

She hummed softly as they got in line for the ride, tucking the green plushie under her arm. Ryoma-kun seemed lost in his thoughts as they waited for the ride, with his shoulders hunched in and back to the wall. Sakuno’s humming faded a little as she glanced up to the big blue sky, stretching out endlessly above them. You could see this same sky all over the world, right? That was supposed to be a comfort for people, wasn’t it? All it gave her was a sense of despair. What if Ryoma-kun liked America better? What if he went back to California? What would Seigaku do after that? She liked Momo-chan-senpai and Kaidou-senpai, but they wouldn’t be able to take Seigaku to Nationals again without Ryoma-kun. What would her daily life be without Ryoma-kun around? He was almost as much of a staple to her routine as Tomo-chan was.

Still, she could hardly stop him. If his mother wanted to leave, he would return to America. They still had emails or video calls, after all, it wass’t like it was the end of the world. Her eyes drifted back to Ryoma-kun, whose eyes were fixed down on his shoes, his hands stuffed in his pockets as he slouched. Gosh, for all of his snarky, unnecessary comments, she’d miss him if he left. She smiled at Ryoma-kun, and was about to say something, when the attendant ushered them into the seat. She ducked into the inside of the small cart, and Ryoma-kun followed in after her, removing his hat to stick into his pockets, at the attendant’s instructions. Their bags and the plushie waited at the edge of the ride and the alien seemed to be looking right at them, with its lopsided smile. 

"Ryoma-kun, you’re sitting on my seatbelt." murmured Sakuno, as she tugged the strap from under his thighs. He muttered an apology, and they strapped up in silence. "It’s a nice day…" murmured Sakuno, as she leant forward slightly.

Ryoma made a noise in affirmation, before they were both instantly launched forward, in a jerky motion. “Shit!” Ryoma-kun swore, as they were thrown around in jerky motions, at such a fast speed that all that Sakuno could see was green, blue, and Ryoma’s red jacket next to her. She whimpered slightly as she pushed herself back into the seat, attempting to reduce the feeling of pressure against her face. Perhaps it hadn’t been the best idea to do this right after lunch. Usually she and Tomo-chan loved these sorts of rides, but this was too much for a fairground, wasn’t it?

Thankfully, the ride quickly ended, which meant that Sakuno could lean her head against the front of the cart, as she struggled to focus her vision again. “Come on, Ryoma-kun.” she said, feebly pushing at him. He clambered out of the cart and promptly tripped over. Sakuno pulled a face and jumped out of the cart as well, to help him up. His face looked pale again, even worse than it had in the morning and Sakuno slipped her arm around his waist, so she could lead him away to a bench on the side, stopping only briefly to grab their bags, quickly.

"Are you alright, Ryoma-kun?" she asked, softly, placing the back of her palm to his forehead. Still no fever, though he was a little sweaty.

"No." Ryoma-kun croaked, as he bent over and propped his head up with his elbows.

Sakuno bit her lip and stared at him, but he seemed content to just bend over and hold himself steady. Fighting the urge to rub circles on his back, like how her grandmother usually did, was difficult, so Sakuno sat on her hands and waited for him to feel better. That had just been induced by the ride, right? His colour had been returning after eating, right? Idiot! Why had she taken him to a ride? She should have taken him to one of the other stands, and fished for ducks or something.

He exhaled shakily and Sakuno perked up a little. He didn’t pull his head up from his knees, but after a moment, started to talk. “I like America’s system better. Nobody cares so much about who’s older or younger, it’s more about how good you are. And teachers are alright with you correcting them, they want to be right, rather than completely respected. It’s not so strict, and they didn’t care how old or how arrogant you were to be on the tennis team. I miss California a lot.” he said, quietly, his voice more composed and slightly hesitant.

"But then…I have a lot of friends here. And the tennis competition is better here, oyaji’s right that things are better here. I still have people to beat here. So I guess…I don’t know what I want. To be Ryoma and respected for being Ryoma, even without many close friends, or to be the burdened Echizen here, but have friends?" he asked, finally looking up. His face looked younger without the hat casting shadows over his features and Sakuno smiled at him, sadly.

"Isn’t the choice obvious, Ryoma-kun? You think that everybody would stop being your friends if you went back to America? Sure, we probably couldn’t talk so much, and maybe we’d drift out of contact for a bit. But isn’t that worth feeling comfortable with who you are?" she asked, softly, glancing down to her shaking knees as she finished. She didn’t want Ryoma-kun to go to America. But it was obvious that he had to go where he would be comfortable. And that wasn’t here. "You can still play tennis when you come to visit us during your vacations." she said, her voice becoming a little more level.

"…what if I don’t play tennis when I come back?" he asked, and Sakuno choked on her spit, softly. Ryoma-kun? Without tennis? What? But he seemed entirely serious, which meant that Sakuno needed to give him a serious answer.

"W-well…we can go to another amusement park. Or I can teach you how to play badminton." she said, with a slightly shy smile. "The senpai-tachi will take you bowling or surfing or something like that, I suppose. Grandma waxes poetic about the bonding sessions while playing other sports, right?" she asked, softly, and encouragingly.

Ryoma-kun gave her a long, hard look, before he snorted softly. “You make it sound so easy, Ryuuzaki, geez.” he muttered and Sakuno shrugged.

"W-well, life’s always got stuff to deal with, right? It’s just how you look at it? You have to look at it in a way that makes it look good, or else you’ll never get anywhere. At least, that’s what works for me, anyway." she ended, feeling a little stupid and shy. "Ano, Ryoma-kun, you’re not really quitting tennis, are you?"

"Dunno. I might. If I ever beat my old man." Ryoma-kun said, shrugging. "Nanako keeps saying that I’m getting closer, so it could happen."

"Well, I suppose for the benefit of the pro-tennis circuit, I hope you don’t beat Echizen-san for a long time." she said, with a slight smile. "Oh, for Yukimura-san’s sake too, didn’t he and Atobe-san really want to beat you still?"

"Oi!" he snapped and Sakuno couldn’t help but giggle a bit at his disgruntled expression. His face was a little more rosy now, which was nice to see.

"I need to go and check on my anpan. Why don’t you stay home for the evening and come to see my dad?" asked Sakuno, as she squeezed the plushie at her side, tightly. "You can call your parents from my house. Grandma’ll be fine if you want to stay the night too."

Ryoma-kun’s eyes widened marginally before he shrugged. “Whatever, sure.” he said, as if he was unaffected by it. Sakuno just smiled at him, as she straightened up and yawned, cracking her neck from side to side.

"I didn’t know that Ryoma-kun wasn’t good with rollercoasters…" she murmured, thoughtfully, picking up her bags.

"I am too good with rollercoasters." he retorted, pulling his hat out of his pockets to stick back over his black, glossy hair. "We just went after lunch, that’s all."

She couldn’t resist. “Sure sure.” she said, in the same dismissive tone of voice that he always gave her. The glare she received in retaliation was worth it.


End file.
